It’s all about the sign

I was in a shopping centre last week and got talking to a complete stranger about having triplets. This is nothing unusual, I can’t remember the last time that I went shopping & didn’t talk to several strangers about the Triplets.
What was different this time was the fact that I was asked for advice on coping with multiple babies.
This question shouldn’t really stump me as I have indeed been there and done that, however the best that I could come up with was advice regarding vehicles that can fit three baby seats side by side and the fact that having a routine in place is essential.

On returning home I found myself thinking of all the advice that I should have passed on, like how we used a chart to record feed times and nappy changes – it’s amazing how hazy the mind becomes when it is deprived of sleep.
Or how we introduced them to bottles really early so that we had the option to give the third child a bottle of expressed milk while the other two were breast feeding.

It was my husband who pointed out the most beneficial piece of advice that we have to pass on. It’s one of those things that you take for granted, its so common place in our own home that you forget that other people might not do it.

We will never know how much difference it made, I can only imagine how much more stressful our lives would have been if we hadn’t taught our babies to Sign from an early age. Long before they were able to speak Alita, Loki & Michael were able to sign when they wanted Milk, when they wanted Food, when they wanted Water and when they wanted More.

They were around five months old when we started showing them the sign for Milk every time they had a feed, before we knew it they were signing back at us & then actually using the sign to tell us when they wanted Milk. As food and water were introduced we did the same thing and they picked those signs up without a problem as well.

I definitely recommend that everyone should try to teach a few signs to their baby/babies, how amazing must it feel for the baby when they realise that they can communicate what they want to you. No more screaming at Mum while she desperately try’s to settle you, then checks your nappy, then finally offers you what you were asking for all along…..MILK!

Milk

Food

Drink (or in our house Water)

I did tell the man in the shopping centre about this website, so hopefully he will read this and I will have passed on some useful advice after all.